A Walk Through Combinatorics

This is a textbook for an introductory combinatorics course that can take up one or two semesters. An extensive list of problems, ranging from routine exercises to research questions, is included. In each section, there are also exercises that contain material not explicitly discussed in the preceding text, so as to provide instructors with extra choices if they want to shift the emphasis of their course. Just as with the first edition, the new edition walks the reader through the classic parts of combinatorial enumeration and graph theory, while also discussing some recent progress in the area: on the one hand, providing material that will help students learn the basic techniques, and on the other hand, showing that some questions at the forefront of research are comprehensible and accessible for the talented and hard-working undergraduate. The basic topics discussed are: the twelvefold way, cycles in permutations, the formula of inclusion and exclusion, the notion of graphs and trees, matchings and Eulerian and Hamiltonian cycles. The selected advanced topics are: Ramsey theory, pattern avoidance, the probabilistic method, partially ordered sets, and algorithms and complexity. As the goal of the book is to encourage students to learn more combinatorics, every effort has been made to provide them with a not only useful, but also enjoyable and engaging reading.

This is a textbook for an introductory combinatorics course lasting one or two semesters. An extensive list of problems, ranging from routine exercises to research questions, is included. In each section, there are also exercises that contain material not explicitly discussed in the preceding text, so as to provide instructors with extra choices if they want to shift the emphasis of their course. Just as with the first two editions, the new edition walks the reader through the classic parts of combinatorial enumeration and graph theory, while also discussing some recent progress in the area: on the one hand, providing material that will help students learn the basic techniques, and on the other hand, showing that some questions at the forefront of research are comprehensible and accessible to the talented and hardworking undergraduate. The basic topics discussed are: the twelvefold way, cycles in permutations, the formula of inclusion and exclusion, the notion of graphs and trees, matchings, Eulerian and Hamiltonian cycles, and planar graphs. The selected advanced topics are: Ramsey theory, pattern avoidance, the probabilistic method, partially ordered sets, the theory of designs (new to this edition), enumeration under group action (new to this edition), generating functions of labeled and unlabeled structures and algorithms and complexity. As the goal of the book is to encourage students to learn more combinatorics, every effort has been made to provide them with a not only useful, but also enjoyable and engaging reading. The Solution Manual is available upon request for all instructors who adopt this book as a course text. Please send your request to [email protected]. Sample Chapter(s) Chapter 1: Seven Is More Than Six. The Pigeon-Hole Principle (181 KB) Chapter 4: No Matter How You Slice It. The Binomial Theorem and Related Identities (228 KB) Chapter 15: Who Knows What It Looks Like,But It Exists. The Probabilistic Method (286 KB) Request Inspection Copy

Aimed at undergraduate mathematics and computer science students, this book is an excellent introduction to a lot of problems of discrete mathematics. It discusses a number of selected results and methods, mostly from areas of combinatorics and graph theory, and it uses proofs and problem solving to help students understand the solutions to problems. Numerous examples, figures, and exercises are spread throughout the book.

The first half of the book walks the reader through methods of counting, both direct elementary methods and the more advanced method of generating functions. Then, in the second half of the book, the reader learns how to apply these methods to fascinating objects, such as graphs, designs, random variables, partially ordered sets, and algorithms. In short, the first half emphasizes depth by discussing counting methods at length; the second half aims for breadth, by showing how numerous the applications of our methods are.New to this fifth edition of A Walk Through Combinatorics is the addition of Instant Check exercises — more than a hundred in total — which are located at the end of most subsections. As was the case for all previous editions, the exercises sometimes contain new material that was not discussed in the text, allowing instructors to spend more time on a given topic if they wish to do so. With a thorough introduction into enumeration and graph theory, as well as a chapter on permutation patterns (not often covered in other textbooks), this book is well suited for any undergraduate introductory combinatorics class.

Written by one of the leading authors and researchers in the field, this comprehensive modern text offers a strong focus on enumeration, a vitally important area in introductory combinatorics crucial for further study in the field. Miklós Bóna's text fills the gap between introductory textbooks in discrete mathematics and advanced graduate textbooks in enumerative combinatorics, and is one of the very first intermediate-level books to focus on enumerative combinatorics. The text can be used for an advanced undergraduate course by thoroughly covering the chapters in Part I on basic enumeration and by selecting a few special topics, or for an introductory graduate course by concentrating on the main areas of enumeration discussed in Part II. The special topics of Part III make the book suitable for a reading course. This text is part of the Walter Rudin Student Series in Advanced Mathematics.

Introduction to Enumerative and Analytic Combinatorics fills the gap between introductory texts in discrete mathematics and advanced graduate texts in enumerative combinatorics. The book first deals with basic counting principles, compositions and partitions, and generating functions. It then focuses on the structure of permutations, graph enumerat

This is the second edition of a popular book on combinatorics, a subject dealing with ways of arranging and distributing objects, and which involves ideas from geometry, algebra and analysis. The breadth of the theory is matched by that of its applications, which include topics as diverse as codes, circuit design and algorithm complexity. It has thus become essential for workers in many scientific fields to have some familiarity with the subject. The authors have tried to be as comprehensive as possible, dealing in a unified manner with, for example, graph theory, extremal problems, designs, colorings and codes. The depth and breadth of the coverage make the book a unique guide to the whole of the subject. The book is ideal for courses on combinatorical mathematics at the advanced undergraduate or beginning graduate level. Working mathematicians and scientists will also find it a valuable introduction and reference.